Carbohydrates are often introduced as energy sources — quick fuel, stored reserve, metabolic currency. In this episode, Medlock Holmes looks beyond that narrow framing and uncovers a far richer story.

Here, carbohydrates emerge as architects of structure and arbiters of recognition. We explore how monosaccharides combine into diverse polymers, how branching patterns encode function, and how glycoconjugates decorate proteins and lipids with molecular identity tags. The cell surface becomes a landscape of information, written in sugar rather than sequence.

Drawing on Lehninger’s treatment of carbohydrate chemistry and Harper’s clinically grounded discussions of physiologically significant saccharides and glycoproteins, this episode connects metabolism to communication. Blood group antigens, immune recognition, and cell–cell interaction all trace back to carbohydrate structures that are subtle, variable, and highly specific.

Medlock learns that in biochemistry, not all information flows through nucleic acids. Some of it is written on the surface, visible only to those who know how to read it.

Key Topics Explored

* Monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides

* Structural diversity and branching

* Glycoproteins and glycoconjugates

* Carbohydrates in cell recognition and immunity

* Clinical relevance of altered glycosylation

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